Alief schools eye lean budget year

District looks to cut costs, use cash reserves to handle tight spending year

BETTY L. MARTIN, Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, June 9, 2005

After the Texas Legislature's failure to find an equitable method of paying for public schools, the Alief school district is looking at dipping into reserves and cutting some non-classroom costs for the coming school year.

The continuing rise in Alief property taxes indicates one funding source — school taxes — won't be reduced in the near future, said Superintendent Louis Stoerner.

In fact, Stoerner said that as the school district hammers out its budget for the 2005-2006 school year, he can't promise taxpayers that they won't be seeing a small spike in next year's tax bill.

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"We're hopeful that with additional cuts and with using a small portion of our reserves and the possibility of a slight tax increase, we can still fund an operating budget and still stay competitive with teaching salaries," Stoerner said.

Alief has a tax rate of $1.67 per $100 valuation, below the average for the state of $1.72. Of that, most goes into the district's general fund that is a few pennies lower than the $1.50 maximum state tax cap and less than 15 other school districts in the Houston and surrounding areas.

School district administrators have begun workshops to put together next year's budget, projected at around $330 million. For one more year, while the current formula is in effect, the budget will include money from the state based on average daily attendance.

Alief received $163.62 million from the state last year for about 47,500 students, an amount projected to increase next year as an expected 280 new students enroll in Alief schools. But due to increasing Alief property values, the district expects it will lose about $6 million in state funding, said Susan Castro, district spokeswoman.

Under the current system also known as "Robin Hood," Alief's combined state aid and property taxes result in the district receiving about $600 less for each of its students than so-called "rich" districts receive.

Some possible cuts being considered by Alief officials include deferring implementation of a district-wide technology plan, limiting student field trips and eliminating staff travel. The cuts will help the district make it through the next year, Stoerner said.

The district also plans no new hires, other than teachers and positions needed to staff Horne Elementary, now under construction.

Stoerner said Alief will be able to cover expenses next year because it has practiced sound fiscal management. Projected expenditures include paying for increasing costs of diesel fuel, teacher salary increases, and completing construction and operating Horne. Horne's operating costs — excluding teachers' salaries — are estimated to be about $500,000.

"We're hopeful that we will be able to give a salary increase. In the 16 years I've been here, Alief has always given a pay increase," he said.

While the 79th Texas Legislature was debating House and Senate versions of school funding proposals, the district calculated how each bill would affect the district.

"We also looked at what would happen if the Legislature did nothing and we had to continue at our current funding level," he said. "What that means is that we have to do some belt-tightening."

Stoerner and other school district officials met with state lawmakers throughout the 140-day legislative session to argue that the $3 billion in extra funding their proposal would have created wasn't enough to meet their growing needs.

The district also sent a letter, asking lawmakers not to abolish the current state funding plan without first coming up with an alternate, renewable funding source.

"We figured that by the end of the 140 days, we would have a piece of legislation that would not only benefit schools, but property taxpayers as well," Stoerner said. "But unfortunately, as we have seen in prior sessions, we were unsuccessful."

There has been some talk that Gov. Rick Perry might call a special session to determine an outcome for what was called the single most important "emergency issue." Stoerner said it's likely the Legislature will wait until the Texas Supreme Court decides whether the current wealth-recapture funding plan meets a Constitutional challenge.

The court was scheduled to begin hearing arguments June 6, but it will probably be in late September or October before a decision is rendered — too late for implementation in the 2005-2006 school year, he said.

"We're hopeful that this is a one-year fix and the Legislature will act once the courts order them to do so, that there will be some relief for 2006-2007," he said.

Vo said he thought the gap between rich and poor districts was still fairly large under the House version, with the average working family hit hard. A family bringing in $60,000 would pay 5 percent more, while people earning $100,000 or above would pay less than 1 percent in school taxes, he said.

Even with concessions to the wealthiest Texans, the measures failed.

"I believe the leadership has certain, set ways to fund public school and they think their way is right," Vo said. "They didn't want to listen to anyone else. Generally, it pretty much didn't matter what we said."

Stoerner said the Legislature's inability to come up with an equitable solution to the school finance problem has created new challenges for Alief and other state districts.

While legislators call for more accountability and ratings systems of Texas schools, he said their inaction merited low marks from state educators.